1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a means for and method of handling animals and in particular to the immobilization and anesthetization for the purposes of husbandry or veterinary medicine.
There has been a longfelt need for immobilizing animals for veterinary purposes to allow for routine treatments, such as shearing or to provide special diagnostic or veterinary treatment. Traditionally, chemical anesthetics have been used, particularly with wild animals, to immobilize the animal for a sufficient time to allow access for treatment. However, it is well known that numerous risks and complications can occur in the case of chemical anesthesia, and injection of the initial immobolizing dose is often difficult to control. As a result, in many cases, chemically anesthetized animals are sometimes overdosed to the temporary or permanent damage or loss of the animal. In any case, the recovery of a chemically anesthetized animal requires a period of time and it is thought that repeated anesthetic doses may have a cumulative adverse effect.
As an alternative to chemical anesthetics, the prior art has devised various means and apparatus for providing electroanethesia which is a technique of passing electric current through selected portions of the animal's body to result in total relaxation or interference and blockage of the animals neural muscular system. See for example Lines, "Immobilizing Animals", U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,895.
However, such prior art means and methods for producing electronarcosis generally apply a single voltage level to the animal during the electronarcotic period. After initial immobilization, the animal often can stiffen to such an extent that breathing is temporarily arrested. In some cases, the voltage and current settings required for initial immobilization will ultimately suppress respiration either causing the animal to succumb by suffocation or possibly cardiac malfunction.
Furthermore, it has been found that different sizes of animals require different currents in order to initiate electronarcosis and immobilization and that the immobilizing parameters may vary among different animals of similar sizes or among individuals of the same species of animal. No analytical model is yet available which can predict the exact electronarcotic voltage and current required for any given species or individual within a species.
In addition, electrical contact made between the animal and the electronarcotic source sometimes varies between animals or between repeated contacts with the same animal. The electrical connection made to the animals body must therefore be secure and repeatable if the electronarcotic, current and voltage for any given animal are to be repeatable as well.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for producing electronarcosis in an animal in a manner which avoids traumatizing the animals respiratory or cardiac functions; which provides continuous amounts of sufficient electronarcotic voltage and current; which automatically accommodates to the different electronarcotic thresholds observed between different species of animals and individuals within a single species; and which can be reproducibly peformed with any given animal.